Elliott Battles Back for Sixth-Place Finish at Michigan

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In: Xfinity Series News

Chase Elliott continued his impressive rookie campaign with a sixth-place finish in Saturday’s Ollie’s Bargain Outlet 250 at Michigan International Speedway. With the finish, Elliott continues to rank third in the NASCAR Nationwide Series drivers’ standings, 20 points behind Regan Smith.

The No. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS Chevrolet raced amongst the top five throughout the first half of the event, even capturing the lead for six laps. Under a lap-67 caution period, strategies began to play out as Elliott stayed on track while many leaders came to pit road for four tires and fuel. The call by crew chief Greg Ives allowed Elliott to line up second for the ensuing restart.

The 18-year-old rookie maintained the second position until making his final four-tire pit stop under caution at lap 79. While the NAPA crew executed a flawless stop, drivers opting for two-tire pit stops or taking fuel only dropkicked the No. 9 to 14th for the race’s final restart at lap 90.

After the restart, Elliott immediately radioed the team that his car wasn’t handling as well while being mired in traffic. As laps clicked away, Elliott slowly climbed into the top 10 and eventually to sixth by the checkered flag.

Paul Menard earned the victory followed by Sam Hornish Jr., Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kyle Busch and Brian Scott.

Chase Elliott, driver No. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS team

“Our car performed great. Honestly, I felt like we had one of the better cars, I’d like to think anyways. You can’t say that unless you have the results to prove it, but I felt really solid about our car all day. I think the biggest thing was that we kind of got off on pit strategy. I made a mistake not following the 54 (Kyle Busch) and 22 (Joey Logano) down pit road. I stayed out with the 42 (Kyle Larson) and we just put ourselves in a box to have to take tires and fuel in the same stop. I think we did the right thing, as far as putting four tires on instead of two. I think putting two on would have killed our balance. We put ourselves in a tight box and didn’t have much of a choice except to fill it up with gas because we were about empty anyways. Some guys had filled up and our stop took about as long as it was going to have to take to do a normal, routine stop.”

JR Motorsports PR

Speedway Digest Staff
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